Dream English Teaching Tips Blog
Fun Thoughts and Creative Ideas for Teaching Children English
New Show on YouTube: Learn Some Words! 😀
Perfect for the ESL/EFL Children’s English Classroom!
Learn Some Words Episode 1: Animals. This special new series from Dream English Kids teaches six words each episode with songs, repeat-after-me, and a quiz. Join Matt, Tunes, Bell and our friend the Pencil in this exciting learning adventure!
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/eHSTJuUpVQs
I’m excited to share my new Numbers 1 to 10 Action Song and video!
The song teaches the numbers 1-10 and teaches actions to practice while counting. Count to 10 with fingers, jumping, standing on one foot, then blast off like a rocket!
Stream or Download the Numbers Action Song:
Spotify
iTunes
Happy Singing!
Matt has visited classrooms in Japan, Thailand, USA, France, Italy, Spain, and Morocco. Now he can visit your classroom virtually with Zoom!
Virtual Classroom Visits
Matt can Zoom in to your classroom for a 25 minute visit, sing-along and chat with your students. Choose your class favorite Dream English songs, or Matt can help you choose a program. Matt can ask and answer questions from students.
Price
$100.00 USD for classroom visit up to 30 students. Matt can only do a visit if it works with his time zone. For more information please send an email with the subject “Class visit Inquiry” and your country and time zone to
matt @ dreamenglish.com no spaces
Matt has done teacher workshops in Japan, Thailand, and Spain. Now Matt is doing live workshops online!
Topics for Workshop
Topics can include lesson planning, teaching English with songs, or Q & A about teaching with Matt (No personal questions please). Have another idea for a workshop? Email us and let us know! (email address below)
Prices
Minimum 10 participants at $10.00 USD each or $100.00 USD for session. For more information please send an email with the subject “Teacher Workshop Inquiry” to matt @ dreamenglish.com no spaces between like this:
Feel free to email with any questions about an online workshop!
Food is a very important topic in Children’s English Classes (ESL, EFL). The new Favorite Food Song teaches 10 food names. More below the video:
How to Teach
Pre-teach the vocabulary in the lyrics using flashcards, or pictures. Then, watch the video and sing the song with your students.
Lyrics
What’s your favorite food? (repeat)
I like hamburgers
I like hot dogs
I like pizza
I like eggs
What’s your favorite food? (repeat)
I like rice
I like salad
I like sandwiches
I like spaghetti
I like soup
I like cake
What’s your favorite food? (repeat)
After the song, you can practice the vocabulary by asking the students, “What is your favorite food?”
Flashcard Game
Put the food flashcards on the floor or table. The students ask the teacher, “What is your favorite food?” The teachers answers, “I like pizza” for example. The students who touches the pizza flashcard first wins the round. Ask each students their favorite food so that they all can have a turn answering.
I hope this is helpful! Be creative, and make a great class using your own ideas and I hope this song can be a part of what you do. Happy Singing!
I use sight words, along with phonics, to teach my students how to read in English (ESL, EFL) . Sight Words are commonly used words that young learners are encouraged to memorize by sight. More below the video!
Sight Words Song Series
I started using sight words a few years ago when I wanted to give my students a boost in their reading skills. Phonics are great, but it can take a long time to get students to begin reading. Encouraging students to memorize words that occur often in text help them read faster, and gain confidence in reading.
I chose the words for my song series from the “Top 150 Sight Words” list, with some modifications based on my experience teaching English to young learners. The basic idea is like the lyrics to the song, “Listen. Read. Remember.”
How to teach
Show the students the video, and then on the second or third try ask them to read the words with me. You can also write the words on the board and pre-teach them before watching the video. The list of the words for this video is: the, I, and, a, to, in, is, you, that, it.
Game Idea
You can play a simple touch game with the words. Write each word on a separate sheet of paper. Put all of the words on a table and have a group of 2-4 students sit around the table. Call out one of the words, for example “the.” The student who touches the word first wins the round.
These are just some ideas to get you started with sight words. Stay tuned for the remaining videos of the series on the Dream English Kids Youtube Channel!
The A to Z Letter Songs Album is now on Spotify and iTunes! 26 Songs, one for each letter of the alphabet. Each song introduces one letter and three words that begin with that letter. For example, “A, apple, ant, alligator.” Great for the ESL and EFL classroom!
Song Videos on YouTube
Above you will find the YouTube Playlist with the 19 Today’s Letter Song videos that are now on YouTube. We are currently through letter S. The remaining videos will be uploaded in coming months.
How to Teach
Teachers can use the videos to teach the vocabulary in the song, or simply an alphabet chart and some pictures on the board for the vocabulary. First, teach the vocabulary slowly, and then try to have the students sing along with the song. Be sure to do the actions in the songs, clap, shake, and dance!
Activities
After singing the song, have the students sit down and write the letter on a piece of paper. Next, ask the students to draw something that starts with the letter. For example, if you are starting with letter A, ask the students to write letter A and then draw an apple. For younger students, you may need to help and draw an apple first on the board so that they can follow along.
These are just some ideas, be creative and come up with your own!
Happy teaching!
My Feet Are For Walking Action Song
This is a fun and simple song for your children’s English class (ESL, EFL). Your students will love the fun and silly actions. Have a look at the video before reading the below teaching tips.
Lyrics:
My feet are for walking (x2)
Walking fast, walking slow
My mouth is for talking (x2)
talking fast, talking slow
My legs are for jumping (x2)
jumping fast, jumping slow
My arms are for swimming (x2)
swimming fast, swimming slow
Teaching Tips:
Start out by teaching the lyrics to the song. Teach them slowly, and have the students repeat after you. If you are not sure about pronunciation, have the students repeat after me as I say the lyrics at the beginning of the video.
I recommend teaching the actions and lyrics at the same time. This helps the students remember. Practice the walking fast, and slow part. This will be really fun for the students, and get them ready to sing. Finally, give the song a try! If you teach your students weekly, try to sing this song at the beginning of class every week for a month! By the end of the month, I’m sure the students will be singing very well. Encourage the students to sing in a loud voice.
Game idea:
Start a phrase of the lyrics and the students have to finish. For example:
Teacher: My feet are for….
Students: walking!
Next, ask a student to come to the front of the class to start the phrase.
Get the song:
“My Feet are for Walking” is available on YouTube, iTunes, and Spotify
YouTube Video link: Click here!
Download this song:
Spotify: Click here!
iTunes: Click here!
Happy teaching!!
The Sing, Draw, and Write series is a fun way to get your students and children interacting with the video. Get a crayon and paper ready and let’s draw and write along! More how to to teach below the video:
Song Lyrics:
Where is the car? Where is the car? Here!
We see the car. We see the car. car!
Where is the truck? Where is the truck? Here!
We see the truck. We see the truck. truck!
Where is the motorcycle? Where is the motorcycle? Here!
We see the motorcycle. We see the motorcycle. motorcycle!
Where is the train? Where is the train? Here!
We see the train. We see the train. train!
Key words: where, here, we
How to Teach:
Check out the first two videos in the Series on YouTube:
Sing, Draw, and Write # 1 : Where is the Lion?
Sing, Draw, and Write # 2 : Where is the Tiger?
Listen to a podcast on how to use the video in your class:
I hope this helps you get the most out of this video. Can you think of other ways to be creative with this video? Maybe ask your students to draw all of the vehicles and then make a play where they act out the video. Give it a try! Happy Teaching! – Matt
It was my first time visiting Morocco, and I was very excited to do my first Dream English show in Africa! I have been fortunate to do Dream English shows in Thailand, Japan, USA, France, Italy, Spain, and now Morocco! More below the photo.
The students were fantastic and sang the Dream English songs so well. I was invited by teacher Hind at the EIC – Almaz school in Casablanca. She uses many of my songs like Good Morning Song, Shake It Out, and more in her classes.
The Show
The show took place in a beautiful auditorium in the school. There were 9 kindergarten classes, the smiles from the children filled the seats. For many of the songs the students joined me on stage singing and dancing. We had a blast!
Here are the Dream English songs we sang at the show:
1. Good Morning Song
2. Hello Song
3. Let’s Count 1 to 10
4. Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
5. The Weather Song (The Sun Comes Up)
6. BINGO Song ( with guitar)
7. Days of the Week Song (with guitar)
8. Baby Shark
9. Colors Action Song
10. Shake it Out
11. Wake Up Song
12. Goodbye Song
(Free downloads of most of these songs can be found here.)
Classroom Visits
The next morning I visited all 9 classrooms and we sang some more songs together, and I had a chance to ask some basic questions to many of the students. The English level of the students was excellent, and it was a pleasure to meet them all. They were all also very kind and gave me many nice handmade gifts (see photo).
Thank you to teacher Hind, the administration and staff of the school for having me. Also a big thanks to the students for singing with me. It was a dream come true to do a show in Morocco!